


be my inspiration

by malumqt (snowboy)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, harry works at a coffee shop, i also dunno if it'll be enough to tag as it, i dunno yet - Freeform, i'm never good at tags, it's not that bad, liam is a writer tho!, like larry and malum, louis is a lil bit of a stalker...just a lil., maybe lashton, niall is in college, oh and Zayn, so I dunno if I should add him as a character or not, there is going to be a lot of ships going on, tho so far he's more mentioned than anything else, zayn works at the coffee shop too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-07 11:39:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1897614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowboy/pseuds/malumqt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam is author trying to write another novel, but he has writers block. Niall is college student who is creative and hyper. They meet at a coffee shop and stuff happens. (i'm worst at descriptions okay?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the dreaded writer's block!

He tried. Oh how the brown haired, brown eyed boy from Wolverhampton tried. It was just his writer's block was getting in the way. With coffee on one side and an untouched muffin on the other side, the boy was staring into a blank screen. He been trying since that morning when the coffee shop was open and now it was slowly closing up for the night.

The boy observed the quieting coffee shop in hope for some form of inspiration. He looked to the curly headed boy with the emerald green eyes that served him that morning. He was cleaning off the counter with a pale rag that was accumulating dust and dirt. While his long curls that could be more described as waves, blocking off part of his face. The boy was hunched over rubbing furiously at one spot his tongue just barely poking out of the corner of his mouth.

Sadly for the writer Harry provided no inspiration to battle his writer's block. So the boy's attention was turned to a different worker. A raven haired boy with dark brown eyes was cleaning off tables. He had headphones in his ears and was dancing along to some music from what the writer could imagine was the worker's phone. The boy almost laughed out loud at the worker's dancing. With whatever they were listening to the song had gotten to the point where it was time to twerk. Now the writer wouldn't deny that the dancer had a fine bum, but sadly the bum was not the right bum to inspirer him. So he turned his attention elsewhere.

This time it landed on a customer sitting in the corner. With brown hair that looked like it was compiled of feathers and ocean blue eyes directed on Harry, the curly one, the writer could imagine that the customer had a crush, but that wasn't just from the stare. The writer had noticed the customer walk in and when they had gone to order, they kept blushing and tripping over words in front of Harry. So crush it was. And while that did spark some inspiration, which he wrote down, it wasn't enough to really get a good story going. Maybe a short drabble, but not the novel the boy wanted to write.

He tried to turn his attention to someone else, but it looked like it was only the four of them. The boy sighed and packed up his things into a boring grey backpack. Taking his muffin and throwing his coffee cup into a bin and going to walk out the door the boy was stopped when the curly boy from earlier calling out to him. He turned to face him and the worker just said with a wink: "See you tomorrow Liam." That comment got the writer a curious stare from the other customer in the room, but he just slightly shook his head to let them know that no, he wasn't dating Harry. The feathery haired boy gave him a small smile of thanks.

Now the writer walked out the door into the cold windy air of London in autumn. He pulled his coat closer to him and turned up the collar. He began his stroll to his apartment, his mind completely out of ideas for anything to write. But was he going to let that stop him? No, he was Liam James freakin' Payne. A best seller new author with one book under belt and now he had to pull out a new one. He just needed someone or something to be his inspiration.


	2. college ain't fun

College: That is where a certain bleached blonde, blue eyed boy from Mullingar, Ireland was currently bored out of his mind. He would never understand the reason why he had to sit through a lecture on sciences when what he was interested was in cooking and music. Being bored out of his mind the boy looked over to his left to see one of his best friends, a curly dirty blond hazel eyed boy named Ashton Irwin tapping away on the closed science book in front of him. The Irish lad wasn't sure if Ashton was tapping because it was so interesting to him, or because he also was bored of the lecture.

The Irish lad turned his attention to the person on his right, a boy with short black hair and brown eyes named Calum Hood. Calum was sleeping with his head buried into his arms. The blonde boy could just hear the soft snores from the sleeping one. Suddenly the teacher presenting the lecture raised his voice about something and that made the black haired boy jerk up and look around. He looked like a lost puppy for those couple seconds he was returning from dreamland. It could easily be told when the harsh form of reality came crashing down. His face fell and he groaned softly and let his head fall back onto his arms.

The blonde desperately wished that his other two best friends were in this lecture with him, sadly those two were in a different class. So the blonde just sighed and turned his attention back onto the lecture.

***

The lecture was over and now it was time for lunch. That morning he and his four best friends had decided that at lunch they would go over to Nandos since their next set of classes weren't going to be for another two hours and the blonde was a-okay with that. He bounded into Nandos, it was quite busy with college students, but the blond had no problem finding his friends. He just had to look for a certain boy with reverse sunk hair. That particular boy, whose name was Michael Clifford, was in a booth near the back away from a lot of the college students, which gave him a good view of Nandos, so the blonde assumed that he had already been seen and bounded his way over. Sliding into the booth across from Michael he smiled and the boy smiled back.

"You're the first one here." Michael commented to the blonde.

"What can I say? Niall Horan is hungry and ready for some Nandos!" His replied earned him a laugh from the reverse skunk hair boy. They sat in silence for a couple minutes before Michael let out a dreamy sigh. Which could only mean one thing to Niall: Calum had arrived. Niall was seriously going to have to step up his game and get those two together. He was the one who had to deal with Michael's texts of how cute Calum's bum was. Besides the fact that it was so obvious that they liked each other. Calum always had the biggest smile around Michael and around anyone else it dimed just little bit. Like Michael was the cause for a bit more of a spark in Calum.

Calum slid in next to Michael and store a few side glances before engaging Niall in conversation. There were a few questions about their lecture today to which Niall had no clue on the answer. He was going to say so, but Ashton popped up and answered Calum's question. Niall slid out to let Ashton sit and he sat down himself. Being left handed it was a bit of a pain bumping elbows with the person next to him while he was trying to eat.

"I see I'm late to the party." Luke Hemmings, a quiffed blonde boy with blue eyes said as Niall once again slid out of the booth to let Luke sit next to Ashton and to give Niall his eating room.

Once everyone was there the thick of the conversation started, food came at one point, conversation continued, the five boys were there for their allotted two free hours before dashing back to class, sitting through another boring lecture Niall doodled random ideas floating in his head. His mind was filled with ideas and nowhere to put them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi there. have an update for this while i write other things. *cough* puppy love and a malum fic *cough* I'm thinking this will be something i'll continue more on after i finish puppy love but currently i have like two and half more chapters of this written so there's that. i guess i'll update this again on like thursday or something. idk. also if you're questioning why i actually have titles for this, it's because they make me laugh so i leave them. plus they do give a little bit of what to expect in the chapter.


	3. cheeky boys and laughter

The lingering feeling of stress was all around the college. Everyone was waiting to take finales or were stressing about their possible grades from the tests they'd already taken. Niall was worried about his music finale. Honestly it was a bit of a simple one, but still nerve wracking. He had to sing a song he'd written himself and anyone who knew Niall knew that his skill in getting thoughts onto paper was terrible.

To take his mind off the performance he would be doing later he was reading a book, or trying to at least. He had his back to the wall, sitting cross legged. Short blonde tufts of hair blocked bits of his face. There was a book in his lap, but all the words were just floating off the page, swirling around, and then landing back down in a jumbled mess. Niall sighed and snapped the book shut. He threw it across the floor where it landed at a young curly haired boys feet. Niall just leaned his head back on the wall and closed his eyes.

"You okay mate?" A low raspy voice floated to Niall's ears. He opened one eye to see the boy bend down and pick up the book. He examined it for a couple moments, before walking over to Niall and sliding down the wall to sit next to him. He placed the book on Niall's lap and the blonde just looked down at the book. Niall shook his head at the Curly's question. He took in a breath of air and held for a couple seconds before letting it go. The blonde felt calmer now, which was more than could be said a couple minutes ago.

The bell rung, both Niall and Curly sighed "Well, I got to go, See you around." The raspy voice floated into Niall's ears again and he just nodded. The boy got up and gathered his messenger bag from across the room; Niall assumed he had left it there when he came over to sit by Niall.

"Hey!" Niall's own Irish voice filled the air, "What's your name?"

"Harry: Harry Styles." The boy said with a wink to Niall. That gave the blonde boy a small smile.

"Niall Horan." Niall said he felt the need to give the curly boy his own name. Harry nodded and went to shake his hand, but the bell rung again. Harry muttered a few words under his breath that Niall couldn't fully catch, but then to the still seated boy he said: "See you around Niall!"

Niall waved and then Harry was gone. The blonde was left on his own again. He checked his own watched and sighed when he noticed that he still had an hour to spare. So he just sat there watching the white wall across from him.

***

"Should we wake him?" A voice with a thick Australian accent somehow floated into Niall's subconscious.

"I don't know, he might want the extra ten minutes of rest." Another voice floated into his head, again Australian

"But, what if he needs to get something from somewhere?" There was a third voice and Niall just wanted the voices to stop.

"Something from somewhere? That's very descriptive, Calum." And a final voice, sounding a tad bit softer than the others had with some traces of sarcasm in it.

"Shush. I'm tryin' ta sleep." Niall's Irish accent was thicker than normal and laced with sleep.

"Nope, you're waking up!" The first voice said. Niall opened one eye to see Ashton, Luke, Calum, and Michael standing around him. Ashton had leaned down and had grabbed Niall's arm and was pulling him up. Niall got a glance at the watch on Ashton's wrist and jumped up himself startling the four boys.

"I got to go!" He said as he collected his things and waved bye to the shocked boys. Niall needed to be on time for his music finale, he just needed to. He got there right as the bell rung saying it was starting.

***

The blonde boy didn't have a good feeling after taking his music finale. His stomach was churning and he felt like he was going to be sick. His performance hadn't gone well to him. His voice had been shaky, he nearly drop the mic twice due to his sweating hands. It was nerve wracking and Niall felt utterly wracked.

So now he was heading to a coffee shop. He wanted to study up for his science finale the next day and possibly get rid of the sick feeling in his stomach.

What he didn't expect was to run into Harry, literally. Now getting hit by a Harry Styles is much like getting hit by a baby giraffe: tall, gangly, and a lot of limbs. Niall had stumbled back and Harry stumbled forward causing both to fall to pavement below. So that's how the blonde ended up getting pinned by a baby giraffe. Harry pushed himself up so he was hovering over Niall and flicked his curly hair away from his face.

"Hi Niall, it's nice to see you again." He grinned down at the blonde. Obviously the boy had no problem falling on top of people. Maybe it's a normal occurrence...Who knows? Niall didn't.

"It's nice to see you too Harry." The blonde smiled back at Harry. While it wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world for Niall it was a good distraction that the blonde needed right at that moment.

"I didn't expect to...run into you so soon." A cheeky smile and laugh emitted from the boy. With the combination of both the joke and laugh, Niall joined in. Harry rolled over and laid just to Niall's side. He was clutching his stomach; his eyes were closed with wrinkles in the sides and tears threatening to fall from laughing so much.

Since the two had bumped into each other on the sidewalk there were people walking past the two laughing boys. A couple passed by with worried looks, others with confused, some with blank, and a couple with annoyed looks like they despised the two boys laughing. Neither boys cared and continued laughing for a couple more minutes.

Niall was the first to calm down from laughter and got up to his feet and brushed himself off. Niall offered his hand to help Harry, who had stopped laughing so hard, get up. The curly haired boy took it happily. Now that both boys where back on their feet Harry slung an arm around Niall's shoulder.

"For that, I'm getting you free drink from One Direction coffee." Harry said while wiping away a few stray tears.

"Okay!" Niall happily agreed and slung one of his own arms around the boy's shoulder.

And that was how the two entered the coffee shop; Harry with a bright smile, dust and dirt all over his clothes and Niall with an equally bright smile, but less dust and dirt.

The two boys disconnected once they got to the counter, where Harry grabbed a green apron walked around to stand behind the counter and face his blonde haired companion.

"What can I get for you sir?" Harry said in his best posh accent and that sent Niall into a fit of laughter. Half the cafe turned to look at the giggling boy. Two in particular took more notice than necessary.

A feathery haired boy with ocean blue eyes looked between the two boys. Wondering if the two were dating, and oh he hoped not. Someday the boy was going to ask the curly one out, but today didn't seem to be that day.

The other was staring at the blonde. He had heard the exchange between the two and something in there had sparked something and he had an idea for a story. Also he found the blonde cute as hell, and he may have mentioned that in his typing, but no one has to know that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i swear niam comes in the next chapter and the one after that and basically probably all the ones after that somehow. for some reason i just spend like 2-3 setting stuff up, giving a lil background before actually getting into the niam. i dunno why. or if it's a bad thing or not.


	4. oh oh, da meeting happens

The brunet boy from Wolverhampton took a sip of his room temperature coffee while typing, rather poorly with one hand. From the sippnit of the conversation between the curly haired worker and cute blond stranger he had thought of batman and his butler, which led to superheroes, which somehow, don't ask how cause the boy doesn't know, led to the coffee shop workers and the quiet boy with a crush on the curly one. So basically a superhero story was being written.

Harry, with his cheeky personality had powers of persuasion and charm. In the writer’s three person superhero team Harry was tasked with getting information out of the villain’s minions and helping getting past guards by distracting and or convincing them to let the three heroes pass.

The feathery haired boy, whom the writer didn't know the name of, had unknown powers. That he hadn't reached his full potential, but somehow always had the right power for a sticky situation, but only when life threatening.

Then there was the second worker, Zayn from what the boy had remembered seeing on the name tag, he had powers of invisibility and speed.

The boy wasn't sure of who was to be the villain, but that would come to him in time. Meanwhile there was a tap on his shoulder. The brunet turned to see the blond from earlier. The boy set his coffee down and smiled up at the stranger.

"Hi, I know this is really weird, but could I sit with you? See, my spot had got taken when I went to the bathroom and...You didn't to know this much information did you?" The stranger rambled. Not that the writer minded one bit. The Irish accent from the blonde was nice to listen to. He motioned for the stranger to sit.

"Thanks!" The blonde gave a beaming smile and sat right down across from the brunet. "I'm assuming you aren't much of a talker?" They asked and the boy just shrugged. It wasn't that he didn't like to talk, he just preferred not to talk when something would be much easier with a gesture.

"Well fair warning, I like to talk. I'm Niall, Niall Horan." The blonde extended his hand for the brunet to shake, which he did.

"I like to listen. I'm Liam Payne." The brunet replied back. He was saying his first words in a couple hours so his voice came out a bit raspy.

"Liam Payne? As in that author Liam Payne?" The blonde, Niall, asked with surprised quite evident in his Irish voice. The writer simply nodded. Niall nodded, "Okay then. I'm meeting a famous person. Cool."

"I'm not that famous." The brunet, Liam, said looking down at the keys of his laptop, a blush appearing on his face mostly in his cheeks.

"Well you're famous enough to be called famous!" Niall stated simply. His blue eyes that almost reminded the brunet of sapphires, falling to the laptop. "Ooo, are you doing your writer thing?" He asked and got a nod in response. "Could I read?" Liam shrugged; he didn't see the harm in letting the blond look at his writing. So he pulled up his most recent work and spun the laptop to face Niall.

Liam finished the rest of his coffee while waiting for the blond to finish reading. He watched as the blonde's face morphed into different expressions. He enjoyed studying the blonde; well he enjoyed studying people in general. It was always a help to his writing, watching people. Seeing the way their faces looked with different emotions. The blonde's final look was only something the writer could explain as 'why'. The blond looked from Liam to the laptop and back. Judging from the expression the boy had determined the blonde had reached where he had left off, with Harry getting captured by an unknown villain.

"No, no, no. No! You can't just leave it there; you can't leave a guy hanging. What happened to Harry? Who the hell is the villain? Why don't they have superhero names? Why Mr. Writer? Why do you end it there?" Niall spun the laptop back to Liam and just looked at him with puppy dog eyes. 

"I don't know yet, don't know, no clue what I should name them, and because it isn't finished yet." The brunet answered each of the boy's questions with a small chuckle. It was one of the reasons why he wrote. He liked that he could make someone feel things from what he wrote, that it interested them, and they wanted more. He never did it for the fame or money, just the people who would read it.

"Well I ain't a writer, but I think for superhero names Zayn should be called Ghost, Harry should be Charming, and the mysterious boy should well, be named Wild Card. Since his powers are unknown and so drastically different depending on situations that he is the wildcard in the group. I think my other questions are something only you should think of...But if you do need a villain you can you use me." The blonde ended with a wink and that made the writer smile.

"Excuse me my cupcakes! The store is closing and if you all could leave so we can clean up that would be nice!" Harry's voice came loudly out of nowhere and started nearly half of the people still in the store, Niall included, but not Liam. He been coming enough times that he'd gotten used to quite a few of the curly headed boy's antics.

"Well I guess I gotta go...Uh." The blonde stood up and patted his pockets. A frown appeared on his features. "Hand me your phone." The blonde demanded holding out his hand and the writer simply pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over. The boy tapped for a few moments and then grabbed his own phone and tapped on that for a few moments.

"Here you go!" Niall smiled and handed the writer’s phone back to hm. The boy opened up his phone and saw a new text.

From: Blonde Weirdo

_tippy tap it's late and time for a nap._

The brunet actually laughed out loud at the text, that made Niall's whole face break out into a smile and then he felt a familiar buzz in his hand.

From: Mr. Writer

_zippy zap have a nice nap._

Liam smirked at Niall.

"See ya 'round Liam!" The blonde said and spun around and walked out. The brunet smiled at the retreating back and once he didn't see the boy anymore he packed up his laptop and slung his bag over one shoulder and went too walked out himself. Feeling happy and productive for the first time in a while since the writer’s block hit him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have this want to just like update every couple days or every day. sooooo the next update will be sunday since i already have the next chapter written.


	5. operation: sail malum

Liam was typing quickly at his laptop getting everything he wanted typed down, after meeting Niall the night before he actually had some idea of what to write. He was in the zone; he was in the coffee shop with his coffee and muffin, the coffee gone and muffin being untouched. He was actually into it so much that he almost didn't notice when a hooded figure sat down across from him with their head down, so he couldn't see their face when he did notice. He did notice the figure he almost let out a girlish scream, remembering where he was Liam kept it in.

"Who are you?" Liam asked, shutting his laptop to give his full attention to the new comer.

"My name doesn't matter." A low almost American sounding voice came from the figure, although, Liam noticed a slight Irish accent in there.

"Hey Niall." He said with a small smile and watched as the blonde pulled down his hood.

"You are the worst for mysteries, Mr. Writer. I was trying to be mysterious and you messed it up!" Niall went off on a small rant about the importance of a good mystery for a while. Liam actually ate his muffin while the blond spoke, nodding here and there.

"Anyway, I want your help." Niall said, finishing off his rant. Liam had half a muffin left so he decided to put it down and save it for a later time.

"What do you need help with?" Liam asked.

"Malum."

"Malum?"

"Oh right, you don't know Malum. Malum is the name I have given to my two best friends Michael and Calum. Michael has a huge crush on Calum and Calum has one on Michael. Only problem they're both too scared to say anything to each other. I was thinking of how to get them together, but then it dawned on me and I said to myself: 'Niall, you know a writer whose job is to create stories and he would know how to come up with a plan to get Malum together.' and here I am. Also do you want the rest of your muffin?" Niall paused, eyeing Liam's blueberry muffin. Being the kind bloke he is Liam handed his muffin to the blond. "Great! Thanks. Where was I?"

"Malum.' Liam supplied helpfully. He was taking all this down into memory so he could write it later. Something about Niall just sparked ideas into the brunet’s mind, not that Liam was complaining, not at all. He quite liked it.

"Right! Malum! So can you help me get them together with that writer brain of yours?" The blonde asked and tapped the side of his own skull.

"I can try." Liam really didn't want to disappoint Niall, plus helping would allow him more time to spend with the blonde so he could get to know him.

"Wonderful! Meet me at my flat in three hours and don't forget to look mysterious!" And with that Niall was off, leaving Liam alone once again in the coffee shop.

For the first hour of waiting Liam had written up his encounter with Niall. He set the whole thing up as a mystery since that's how Niall had tried to act at first. It was shaping up to be a pretty good story with what Liam had written. Although by the end of the hour Liam had gotten stuck and wasn't sure what else to write. He thought about writing more of the superhero thing, but checking the time to see that he had two more hours to get ready. He figured he should get ready instead. Liam packed up his things, threw his coffee cup and used muffin wrapper into a bin and then headed to his flat to change.

Honestly Liam didn't put too much effort into looking mysterious. He threw on a grey hoodie and figured that was good enough. It didn't make him noticeable, and to him, some of the most mysterious where the ones that aren't noticed. The brunet grabbed his car keys and phone, sending Niall a quick text Liam jogged down the stairs and into his car. By the time that he got into the car he received a text from Niall giving him his needed directions.

The brunette nervously straightened the grey hoodie and knock lightly on Niall's door. Three knocks was all it took and he was soon looking into blue eyes.

"Mr. Writer! Hi." The blonde said, giving Liam the brightest smile. The boy could outshine the sun with that smile.

"Hi...Blondie." Yeah, go ahead. Judge Liam. He couldn't think of a better nickname for the blonde. In his defense he didn't know much about the boy besides the whole Malum thing and that he talks a lot. So really, it was an alright nickname for as much information that he had been given.

"Come in; don't stand there like a crazy person." Niall motioned him in and the boy walked past the blonde. The flat was spacious and the writer couldn't tell if it was because it was big or it was organized to look big. So he shrugged it off. He wasn't there to judge the flat; he was there to help Niall.

"How exactly do you need my help?" The brunette asked as he followed the blonde to the kitchen, where he then sat on a breakfast bar stool.

"Okay, so I was thinking about it and I have an idea." The blonde stopped and looked at Liam. "Do you want some tea?"

"Yes, please. What's your idea?" Liam replied. Niall began making tea and started talking again.

"Get them to go on a date, but they don't actually know it's a date. Also would you like sugar and milk in your tea?" He asked as he got tea ingredients.

"How? And yes I would like sugar and milk. I like two sugars." Liam didn't see where he was supposed to help. Niall seemed to have it all figured out.

"That, I don't know. This is why I got you. To be honest I was surprised when you said you'd help me after only knowing me since last night." The blonde said as he handed a mug filled with hot tea to Liam and set his own down on the counter.

"Oh." Was all Liam said and stared down at his tea. He was thinking mostly about Niall's Malum problem. A little bit about the blonde himself, but mostly about his Malum problem. "I guess what you could do is invite them to a movie and then leave them there. So then they're on a date, but not on a date?"

"That's..." Niall paused as he took a sip of his tea. He stared thoughtfully at Liam for a second longer after he put his mug down. His whole face brightened up. "Brilliant! I need to text them!"

As the blonde quickly pulled his phone from his pocket, the brunette simply sipped on his tea and watched the other. "Hey Liam, would you want to go to a movie tonight?" Niall asked his eyes glued to the phone as he typed out another message.

"Yes?" The writer was a bit confused at the blonde’s sudden question. Was he needed for something else? Did Niall just want company? Why him? All those questions and more were running through Liam's mind. He shook his head and then with more conviction he said yes. Which brought a smile to Niall's face as he looked up to face the writer.

"Perfect! We'll leave at seven."

"Okay, should I leave and come back or...." Liam trailed off. He wasn't sure of what to do. His first thought would be to write more of the newest idea the blond had supplied through his antics. One of mystery and love, really it was slowly being written out in his mind, he just needed to continue to type it down. When the writer looked at Niall the blond looked in deep thought.

Niall snapped out of his thoughts and look to Liam. "Well it's three and there's four hours to kill until the movie so whatever you want. I was going to watch some tv, you can join me or meet me back here at six thirtyish."

Liam shrugged, if he left all he would do is go back to the coffee shop and write. "I'll stay."

The blond let out a cheer and grabbed the writer's hand. "Come on then." The writer let himself be pulled, but he grabbed his backpack which he had brought with his laptop in to possibly do some writing. The two settled down and the blond turned on the tv while Liam made himself a bit more comfortable on the couch.

The two actually just watched tv for an hour, Liam taking little notes on Niall's attitude and personality and mannerisms. A bit of their conversation from the night before where Niall had said that Liam could make him a villain and while the writer didn't make Niall a villain he did decide to add him to the story as another superhero.

The writer pulled out his laptop from his backpack and opened up his folder of stories. He went to the one labeled superheroes and started writing about an Irish superhero that had been captured by the villain’s minions and met Harry in the cells. The Irish superhero had the power of light and fire manipulation, much like the blond boy the superhero was bright, like a ray of sunshine, but lively and little temperamental like fire.

He and superhero Harry were going to plan their escape, but a small problem was thrown their way. The two missing superheroes Zayn and mystery boy were thrown into the cells next to the two, Zayn next to Harry and mystery boy next to Niall. The writer was just writing their plans on escape when he felt a poke from a certain blond boy next to him.

"Liam, it's time to go." Niall said with a small smile. Liam took notice on how close the blond was to him and when he moved away Liam took noticed the loss of heat on his side. He assumed the blond had moved closer to Liam to see what he was writing, not that the author mind. He was just happy he hadn't written that the blond was cute in it. Liam didn't want it to get weird between the two of them.

"Okay, also sorry." Liam replied as he saved the file and shut down his laptop. He tucked the laptop back in his backpack and when he had looked back up to Niall he was met with a confused and little bit of annoyed expression from the blond.

"Sorry? No saying sorry Liam for writing while I watched telly, or for putting me in the novel as a superhero. Okay? I liked it and you shouldn't be sorry. If I would've minded I wouldn't have said that you could put me in last night, so no apologies Mr. Writer." Liam opened his mouth, but Niall cut him off. "No saying sorry for being sorry." To which the writer nodded and closed his mouth. "Now c'mon you need to meet Malum."

The two took Liam's car since Niall normally took public transportation or walked. They were to theater in no time. Once the car was parked Niall jumped out and raced to two boys who looked about his age. One with short black hair and a bright smile, the other with....green hair? Yep, green hair. Liam wondered why the boy had it as green since it was definitely dyed.

He got out of the car and walked to the trio of talking boys and giggles like they were in middle school, which simply brought a smile to Liam's face. Niall noticed him walking over and changed subjects from the movie to Liam.

"Okay so this is Liam. As in Liam Payne the author." The blond said and slung an arm over the author's shoulders. The two boys stared in shock. Niall continued to do introductions. "Liam this is Michael and Calum." Niall said pointing to the boy with green hair and then to the boy dark hair. "Michael, Calum, this Liam. Now let's go see the movie!" He said his arm still slung over Liam's shoulder.

The four walked into the theater, apparently Michael and Calum had already bought the tickets. So they header to the person guarding the screens against people sneaking in, the person ripped the tickets and let them in. Liam took notice of their current format. It was him and Niall together and the Michael and Calum were walking close to each other, their hands brushing against each other at random times.

The blond was surprisingly getting more and more excited for the movie, but Liam also knew he was more excited to get Michael and Calum on their surprise date. They entered the screening and took seats near the back. As they had been a couple minutes early they were sitting through trailers.

Niall every so often announcing after trailers that he wanted to see the movie which earned him chuckles from the three boys. Liam actually made a mental note of all the movies so he could remember and possibly take Niall to one. As friends of course, it'd be friends even if Liam would like it to be a little bit more, but he'd count his stars and stick with friends.

Liam took notice of Michael and Calum. He heard bits of conversation between the two plus Niall. Liam stayed out and watched. Michael kept looking at Calum with fondness in his eyes, and any sarcastic comments toward Calum were laced with fondness. There was definitely a crush forming from Michael's side.

He focused his attention on Calum. The boy was a lot easier to read. While Michael had provided a little challenge with the author to listen to the traces of fondness and love behind his expression and voice, Calum was like an open book. When Niall and Michael got into a debate about what was the best dinner at Nandos, Calum stilled stared a little at Michael. It was a stare of aw, love, and sadness all at once. From what Liam could tell the aw was just Calum thinking that Michael looked amazing, the love was everything about Michael, and the sadness was probably from his thought that he'd never be able to be with the boy with green hair.

There was still a few minutes left to go, Liam estimated it'd be three until the movie actually started so he butted into the conversation. "Excuse me; I need Niall to come with me for a second." He got up and gestured for Niall to follow, which the blond did.

Once they were outside the doors of the screening Niall asked, "What's up?"

"Michael would have to make the first move." Liam said, he bit his lower lip in concentration. From what he could tell it'd have to be Michael, from Calum's expression of sadness he believed it impossible to be with the boy and most likely would never make the first move.

"Why?" Niall asked, tilting his head in confusion. Liam explained to the blond his thoughts and Niall nodded along. He knew the two boys longer than Liam and he was right. If Calum did feel like he could never be with Michael then he'd never try. That boy didn't take risks. "What should we do then?"

"We could take the straight forward approach and tell Michael to kiss him." Liam shrugged, he kind of doubted it'd work but then again he'd learn that sometimes the simplest solution is the best.

"Are you crazy? I can't tell Michael that Calum likes him. I told Calum that I wouldn't. I also promised Michael that I wouldn't tell Calum anything." Niall groaned. It was shaping up to be harder than he thought to get the two together.

"I didn't make any promises to anyone..." Liam trailed off. He didn't know the two boys well enough to come up with another solution. When he wrote he knew everything that was going on and mostly how it'd end. Real life though he wasn't capable of that insight.

"That's....genius. Stay right there." Niall raced off and Liam followed orders and stayed put. He was assuming that Niall had gone to get Michael and he was right. "Michael, talk to Liam also if anyone asks I was never involved in this." Then Niall walked back to the screening leaving a confused Michael to Liam.

"What do I need to talk to you about?" Michael asked, sticking his hands in his pockets and trying to look nonchalant. The author had trained himself to pick up body language and could tell the other was nervous.

"I'm going to give you some advice. Okay?" Liam looked at Michael and the green haired boy nodded. "Calum likes you, but I'm suspecting he thinks that he can never be with you. So if you really want to call him yours, you have to make the first move. Do with that information what you will; I'm just letting you know." Judging by Michael's gasp he didn't expect the words coming out of Liam's mouth.

His voice was a bit small and worried when he asked "Do you really think Calum likes me?"

Liam nodded. "As sure as I know that you like him." Michael eyes widen at the writer then Liam explained a bit. "You have a certain type of fondness whenever you look at him or speak to him. Not to mention your reaction when I said Calum likes you. Now are you ready to return to the movie?"

Michael nodded and the two went back into the theater. Liam sat down next to Niall while Michael sat down next to Calum. Niall's breathe was hot by Liam's ear as he whispered "I want to ditch them for their date-not date, but this movie is amazing."

The brunet whispered back "We could move where they can't see us." The blond nodded to that and then whispered something to Calum and stood up. He offered a hand to Liam, who took it and they moved away to where the other two couldn't see them. They enjoyed the rest of the movie and both boys actually forgot about why they'd came in the first place until the movie was over and Michael came looking for them.

The green haired boy was out of breath when he found the two. He looked at them both and breathed out. "I did it. I kissed him and it was amazing."

Niall jumped up and enveloped Michael in a hug. "Yes!" He pulled back from the hug and punched the air. "What was Calum's reaction?" He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, obviously excited for his two best friends.

"I don't know, he ran off and I came to find you two." Michael's voice had worry in it, but Liam noticed that it mostly overtaken by shock. The boy continued "He did kiss back. That's good, I think. I hope. What if he's regretting it?" Michael's face suddenly fell, but before either boy could say anything to the now panicking Michael another voice joined them.

"He's not." Michael whipped around to stare at the kiwi boy. Next thing Niall knew is that the two were kissing, but as Liam had been watching a bit more closely he saw Calum move in first and started kissing Michael. He stayed in shock for about a second before kissing back.

Niall looked to Liam and Liam looked to Niall. The blond held up his hand for a high five, which Liam high fived.

The two boys looked back to Michael and Calum when they heard Michael ask "Would you want to go on a date sometime?" The boy was nervous; he was looking down at his hands and fiddling with them. Calum smiled and held out his hand for Michael to interlock with his own hand.

"I'd love to."

"Yes!" Niall yelled and grabbed Liam and started doing a happy dance with the writer, earning himself a weird glance from the two boys, but a laugh from the writer who joined with the happy dance. "Malum got together, Malum got together!” He singled and spun Liam around. The blond boy was lucky they were standing in an empty theater at that moment.

"Let's go get some food now I'm starving. C'mon Mr. Writer we'll leave the lovebirds to do what they do." Niall said pulling Liam away. Liam let himself be pulled away and just waved bye to the still confused Michael and Calum.

Before they were fully out hearing range of the two Liam heard Michael ask Calum if he wanted dinner. Then they left before he could hear Calum's reply. He decided that his and Niall's mission was a success even if it did stray off the original plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter! this freaking chapter is 3510 words long. so be happy. and i dunno when the next update will be (i wanna say wednesday but i have to actually finish writing the chapter so maybe wednesday maybe not. i'll try for wednesday) also as a side note if you wanna look at where niall was singing about malum getting together. think of that in the tune of blue's clues where they sung about letters and yeah that is what was running through my head when i wrote that.
> 
> also question, within this fic there will be mentions of like other stories, ie the superheroes and whatever mystery thing was starting to be written. my question is would you like some sort of side like oneshots or something that will be those stories? cause i tell you right now the superhero one would be larry and the mystery would be a mix of niam and malum.


	6. finals and sickness

Niall woke up with a smile on face. The night before Liam had dropped him off at his flat after they had gone to Nandos and said that if Niall ever wanted to hang out again to call or go by the coffee shop. Niall had asked if Liam spends all his time there and the writer just shrugged, which Niall took as a yes. 

The blond was actually feeling prepared for his last couple finals. He had quickly gotten ready and got to the college early so he waited for someone he knew to show up. As the blond was sitting outside he saw when a car parked and a head of curly hair came out followed by the baby giraffe known as Harry. 

Harry noticed Niall and ran over. "Hi Nialler!" A big smile was on Harry's face and Niall matched that smile. "Ready for the last day of finals?" He looped his arm around Niall's and led him into the college building.

"As ready as I can get." Niall replied, looping his own arm around Harry's and going inside the building. 

"What's your finale in? Mine is for cooking." The curly haired boy took Niall to the library where he sat down on a sofa and pulled the blond down next to him.

"Science." He responded, not looking forward to that final at all. "So cooking?" Niall asked, he wanted to change subjects away from his own finale and thankfully Harry understood that and started talking all about his cooking. The blond smiled as the curly haired boy talked about the different ways to make bread. It was a good distraction and better than anything that he would've thought about. 

The two remained liked that which in a way reminded Niall of him and Liam. Only it was Harry instead of Liam and Niall was the one barley talking. The blond wondered what the writer was up to and whether he was at the coffee shop or not. He remembers from last night at Nandos when Liam had implied he does pretty much all of his writing at the coffee shop. The blond slightly shook Liam from out of his head and focused his attention onto Harry. 

"Wait, how does the inside of the bread stay soft?" The curly haired boy was still on cooking and bread. It's just while Niall was thinking of him and Liam, Harry started talking about garlic bread and Niall had always wondered how the inside stayed soft.   
Harry grinned and went into an in depth explanation which Niall listened to and got in with. 

They argued back and forth about garlic bread until Harry pointed out that he was the one taking a class for cooking and not Niall. To which Niall had nothing to say to that so they left it. Harry glanced at the time, his smile slowly turning into a frown which made Niall guess that Harry had to leave for the finale, so the two parted ways.

Niall wandered around campus in attempt to find something to do. He walked into the library and then walked back out with a hand coveting his eyes. As much as Niall was happy for the two he didn't want to see Michael and Calum half naked and kissing, and in a library. How the boys hadn't thought to move somewhere not that public was beyond Niall's mind. 

He walked around some more. He still had half an hour until his science finale. Niall walked to where his finale would be and pulled out his phone. He found a text from Michael and Calum apologizing for Niall having to see what he saw. To which Niall shrugged even though he knew the two boys couldn't see him. Then he opened a game and played that for the next twenty eight minutes. 

Niall had stopped when his phone notified him of a new text which was from Liam. A smile appeared on his face with the writer's cuteness.

_From, Mr Writer_  
Good luck on the finale! Remember, that mushroom was a fungi and everyone was missing out. ;)  
Also because the mushroom was such a fungi, why did they not have the party at his house?  
...  
Because there wasn't mush-room! :) 

His phone beeped signaling it was time for him to go to the class. So he pocketed his   
phone, telling himself to reply later. 

***

It was over. Everything was over for the semester for Niall. He ran into Luke and Ashton where he gave them both a big hug. They returned with understanding of Niall's excitement as they, Michael and Calum, had been the ones to calm Niall down when he started freaking out in the beginning of finals week. He finished hugging Luke and Ashton then skipped off to his flat to take a well-earned nap.

He woke up from said nap when his phone sounded alerting him of a text. He rolled over on his bed to grab the phone off the bedside table. He checked his texts finding one from Harry inviting him to an end of semester party. Niall being the party loving guy he is, said he'd be there. 

Once he was there he met up with Harry. They joked around a bit, and Niall could tell that Harry was already quite drunk. The boy got really flirty and giggly when drunk. Niall had seen him flirt to every remotely attractive person there. After Niall himself had a couple drinks and Harry a couple more, the curly haired boy flirting with a lamp and proclaimed to the world that the lamp was his one true love.

Niall laughed quite a bit and had another drink. The party was starting to die down and Niall was starting to get bored so he told Harry he was leaving, but not before laughing him as he was cuddling the lamp. The curly boy nodded and went back to cuddling his lamp.

The blond boy stumbled out of the party and down the street a bit. He looked around for his car, but he wasn't recognizing any so he kept walking down the pavement. 

Before the blond boy knew it he was lost. He was still giggly drunk and was finding the entire situation funny. He pulled out his phone to call someone and tell them. His fingers ghosted over the contact labeled Mr. Writer. He thought about it and then decided to call Liam. 

"Ello?" Liam's voice was on the other end. For some reason it made Niall giggle. 

"Hi, Li. I have a..." Niall paused trying to think of the word. It was on the tip of his tongue but it was taking to long for him to remember so he continued talking anyway. "So I'm like really really really lost." He giggled at the end and all his words were slurred. 

"Are you drunk?" Liam asked and Niall giggled once again. He felt like he was giggling to much, but everything was good so why not giggle?

"Yup!" The blond popped the 'p'. 

"Where are you?" Liam sounded a little panicked now which confused Niall. 

"I told you I'm lost." He looked around. He seemed to be at a playground. He looked at the sign for the playground which stated James Park. "Oh the playground has my middle name!" He shrieked in delight. 

"What's your middle name?" Niall could hear the jingling of keys in the background of Liam's end of the call. He shrugged it off and walked over to the slid at the playground and laid down on it before replying.

"James! Niall James Horan. I feel like it would be weird if my middle name was Niall. Could you think of someone being named James Niall Horan? It just doesn't sound right to me. The stars are really pretty tonight." 

"Okay Niall. Stay at the park. I'll be there in ten minutes." Niall nodded at Liam's command then hung up the phone. He stared up at the stars while he waited for Liam.

***

Niall woke up with a pounding head ache and everything in his body hurt. He was confused at first. For one he didn't know where he was. He was on a bedroom that definitely wasn't his or any he'd been too before. Two, he didn't remember anything from the night before besides Harry and a lamp. 

The blond slowly pulled himself into a sitting position. He looked around the room and noticed a table to the side where a glass of water and pill was along with a note. 

_Hi Niall,_  
I left a pain pill for you and some water. So take it if you have a headache.   
Liam. 

Niall smiled at Liam's thoughtfulness. He was still confused as to how he got here, but that was a question for when his head wasn't pounding like a drum. He quickly took the pill and drained the water out of the glass. He ignored the last part of the note and got up to find Liam. 

He found his way to the kitchen where he saw Liam on his laptop. He sunk up behind the writer and looked to see what he was writing. It seemed to be a continuation of the one with superheroes. He read down a bit and book him was doing some heroic saving. He grinned at book him. He read all the way to where Liam had stopped and saw that it was at the part where the villain was finally going to be revealed, though Liam hadn't written the actual revealing yet. 

The blond glanced down to see Liam staring up at him. Niall yelped and jumped back. "How long did you know I was standing there?" 

The writer motioned for Niall to come closer. Which the blond did and then Liam leaned in and his lips barley brushed against Niall's ear. "I heard the bedroom door open, so the entire time." Niall moved back. He's face transformed into a pout while Liam laughed. "You're not as sneaky as you think." 

"Fuck you Liam. I'm very sneaky." Niall folded his arms over his chest. The corners of his lips were curling into a smile. Still Niall tried to keep the pout going. The writer stared at the blond. Liam smiled which made Niall smile and the two stared laughing. Though Niall's laughing turned into a coughing.

Liam got up in a second and picked Niall up. He carried the blond boy to the sofa and gently placed him down. Niall grinned up at Liam "And people say chivalry is dead." 

Niall didn't realize how much his body really ached until he was back on the sofa. Liam noticed his discomfort he paused for moment then started walking toward the bedroom. "I'll be right back." True to his word Liam was back a minute later with a thermometer. "Here put this under your tongue." He handed Niall the thermometer. 

The blond did as Liam said. When the thermometer beeped Liam took it out and by the way his eyes widen Niall could tell it wasn't really good. "You have a fever. You're sick." 

"No, I'm Niall." He commented with a grin that turned into a cough. Liam cracked a worried smile at the blond's joke. The blond curled up on the sofa so he was more comfy. "So am I your prisoner until I'm better?" 

"Oh, uh, you can go back home if you like. I mean, you don't have to stay here." Liam avoided eye contact with Niall. The brunet knew that if. Niall went home then he would be worrying and texting to make sure he's fine, not that he was going let the blond know.  
Niall on the other hand just made something like a shrug, but he was slowly falling asleep. 

"I think I'll stay here. Have you be me servant." Liam ginned at Niall's heightened accent as the younger boy fell asleep. Liam left to get the blond some blankets and when he came back Niall was completely asleep so he just covered the blond up and moved his laptop to the other sofa and wrote as Niall slept.

***

"I think it was because I stressing out over finales. I've heard you can get sick from too much stress....No, Liam been's taking care of me.....Oh, Liam Payne, you know the book with th- yeah him. He's nice. At that coffee shop, uh, One Direction coffee, Harry works there. You don't know...Oh. You should meet him too. Okay, bye Ashton." Liam woke up to Niall sitting up and talking on his phone. The brunet hadn't meant to fall asleep but it had been getting late. He checked the time and it was the middle of the night. 

"Hi Liam!" Niall perky voice rang in the otherwise quiet room. The blond was looking a lot better to Liam. Not quite so sick. 

"Hey Ni, how are you feeling?" The writer asked as he closed his open laptop, he had forgotten to close it before he fell asleep or to charge it so the battery was at seven percent. 

The blond shrugged. "Better. How'd I get to you flat though? I don't remember much from last night." Liam nodded, he could understand why. Niall was stumbling drunk. 

"You were drunk and called me from James Park after you got yourself lost. When I arrived you were passed out so I took you here." Niall nodded, he still didn't remember, but he could understand that. 

"Do you know anything about Harry and a lamp? Like did I talk about that in my sleep or somethin'?" Niall asked. He was confused on his memory of Harry flirting with a lamp and wasn't sure if it was a crazy dream or if the curly haired boy actually flirted with a lamp at the party.

Liam shook his head. "No, you didn't, why a lamp?"

The blond shrugged. "I have a memory of Harry flirting with a lamp." Liam looked confused for a second then he just laughed. Niall grinned. He thought Liam had a nice laugh and he wouldn't mind if that was a sound he heard a lot. Suddenly Niall's phone beeped. He checked seeing a text from Harry. 

"Li, could drive me to a house. Harry is stranded by my car." He explained. Liam nodded and the two left to see Harry.

***

"I love you." Was the first thing out of Harry's mouth as he ran up to Niall and Liam. He enveloped them both in a hug. When the curly haired boy pulled back e looked from Niall and Liam then suddenly said "I almost married a lamp last night."  
All three boys busted into a fit of laughter. Niall was leaning against Liam so he wouldn't fall to the floor from all his laughing, while Harry already did. Liam was the one to regain composer first.

Niall was the first to speak up. "I should get this boy back home. I see you later ya? Maybe we go grab some lunch tomorrow? My treat as a thank you for taking care of me." The blond offered to Liam. The writer nodded and then Niall was pulling Harry up. He waved to Liam as he was about to drive away once Harry was fully situated in the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> helllloooooooooo cupcakes. sorry about this update taking so long. it's long tho. does that make up for the slow update?


	7. lou lou now

Liam got a text the next day from Niall while he was at the coffee shop. The blond boy wanted to meet and Liam wasn't going to deny so he texted back where he was and waited. He looked around the shop. His eyes landed on the brunet boy with feather hair who always sat in the corner admiring Harry. He wanted to go over and find out the boy's story, but before he could really consider all the pros and cons of going over a blond boy plopped down in the seat across from him. 

"Hey Li! Whatcha looking at?" Liam turned to face the blond and as ready as he was to reply he froze. Niall was wearing glasses and looked amazing in them. He quickly shook himself out of it before Niall could really notice his stare as the blond had look in the direction where Liam was looking at first. 

"The boy in the corner, he's always here and admiring Harry. I think it might be a crush, but I'm not sure. I've never spoken to him before." Liam explained and looked back to mystery boy. 

Niall nodded then a look of recognition crossed his face. "Oh! Is he mystery hero in your story who has the crush on Harry?" Liam nodded absent mindedly. It was like he trying to figure out everything about the boy just by looking and it wasn't working. "C'mon!" It wasn't like Liam had much choice on if he wanted to come along or not as when Niall jumped out of his seat he grabbed Liam's hand and would've dragged him over.

"Uh, hello." The mystery boy spoke as Niall and Liam got closer. Liam was starting to realize just how carefree the blond boy was when he sat across from mystery boy and pulled Liam down with him. 

"Hi! I'm Niall and this is Liam. We've noticed you always here and Liam is always here so I figure you two can become pals." Niall shocked the boy with his bluntness, but he talked anyway. Not that Liam heard much. Just that the boy's name was Louis Tomlinson. He was preoccupied with Niall's hand still intertwined with his own. "Right Liam?" The blond asked now looking at Liam. The brunet automatically said right and then Louis sighed. 

"Okay, so I met Harry here when the shop was having a slow day and we flirted a bit and since then I've been seriously crushing on him. I just don't know how to tell him. It was also one conversation so it'd be weird." Louis explained which Liam paid attention to.   
Niall made eye contact with Liam and the writer could tell the glint in his eyes and knowing Niall as far as he actually knew him it would involve him. 

Soon Niall made up an excuse to leave for a couple minutes, which Liam assumed would be to call Harry. Then it was just Liam and Louis. 

"So, Liam? Payne?" Louis leaned forwarded and grinned at Liam. He didn't seem as awkward as Liam felt. Or if the boy did feel it, he was good at hiding it. Liam nodded, and then Louis nodded. The two kept nodding at each other. "You know," Louis stopped nodding in favor of talking. "If you ever go to movie premiers you should take me with you." 

"Is that all I'll be to you? Someone to take you to movie premiers?" Liam asked with a smile.  
In an overly dramatic tone Louis mock fainted. "Oh how thou doest doubt me! You think that I will take advantage of thee! But no good sir! This lad with a fine ass will tempt a more famous person to take him if that was what he truly wanted!" Liam tried and failed to keep a straight face throughout Louis' speech, but failed terribly. Louis joined in on the laughter so everything was fine.

Niall soon returned with a curly haired boy. Liam gazed up at Niall and realization hit him like a ton of bricks. Liam's gaze lasted longer than it should've, but he was admiring Niall.   
From the old sweater and jeans he was wearing to his blue eyes and blond hair. The boy looked like he could be the human embodiment of the sun. As much as Liam knew he had a crush on Niall, he had thought it was small one that would go away in a couple weeks, but no. It was not a little crush it was a massive one. One the Liam didn't think would leave in a couple weeks. He couldn't understand how the Irish boy had gotten so far into his thoughts. He hadn't even known him for a week and already he was seriously crushing on the boy. 

The human embodiment of sun looked at Liam and smiled wide with little crinkles by his eyes. Then the boy sat himself onto Liam's lap. "Harry, sit! Join in our little group!" The blond boy leaned over to pet the seat next to him which was also a lot closer to Louis. But as he did that Liam's arms wrapped around the boy's waist to insure that he wouldn't fall. Not that the blond commented on it. He didn't even look fazed.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Harry sat down. He faced Louis and bit his bottom lip in concentration. Louis opened his mouth to say something but Harry held up a hand and Louis closed his mouth. There was silence for a while then Harry's face lit up in an ah-ha moment. "Louis! That's your name. At first I was thinking it was Lewis, but no that was the name of the lamp."

Both Liam and Louis looked at Harry with confusion so Niall cleared it up. "We were at a party day before yesterday and Harry got really-" Niall stretched out the really. "Drunk. At first he was flirting to everyone there, but then this lamp took his attention and he cuddled with it, and kissed it, then complained about the dust on it, so then he cleaned it and named it Lewis. Why did you name it Lewis?"

Harry blushed and looked down. "I don't know. I was drunk." Liam heard a faint giggle and looked to Louis who hand a hand on his mouth and crinkles by his eyes. He was definitely suppressing the giggles as best as he could. Only Harry noticed Louis' suppressed giggle and blushed even more. 

Niall wasn't so subtle. He was full at laughing, bit it was muffled as he hand pressed his face into Liam's shoulder so there were muffled sounds accompanied by the shaking of the blond's shoulders.

"I came out to have a good time and honestly I'm feeling so attacked right now. Liam and Zayn are my only friends now. You two can consider yourselves exs." Harry said with fake sincerity in his voice. He pouted at the two boys for added affect. Both Louis and Niall froze and snapped their attention to Harry. The curly haired boy couldn't hold it in so he covered his mouth as laughter tumbled out. Then it was Louis' and Niall's turn to pout. 

"This is why I like Liam the best. He doesn't tease me." Niall announced. "In fact, c'mon Liam, we're abandoning these two." Liam released his hold around Niall's waist so the blond could get up, but then the blond pouted. "Actually I think we'll stay here."   
Harry and Louis looked at Niall in confusion. 

"Okay?" They looked to each other than to Niall and then to Liam. Louis then motioned the curly haired boy to come closer and whispered something into his ear, making Harry nod in understanding. 

"Besides who else is going to make you two realize you like each other, like c'mon I'm a master at getting people together. I got Malum together and I would be working on getting Lashton together, but they are steadily heading there, so there's no need for my help." Niall paused and twisted his body around leaving Louis staring at Harry and Harry to Louis. "What should we call them? I was thinking Houis, but that sounds a little weird." He spoke to Liam normally so he knew very well that Harry and Louis were listening. 

Liam paused as he thought of possible ways to mesh the names together. "Larry?" He whispered back the name that he thought sounded okay. Of those names he thought of there was Hauis and Harou. Niall nodded several times and then turned back to the two boys. As he slipped a little bit from the turning, Liam reattached he hold around Niall's waist.

"You will be called Larry Stylinson. See! You even get a last name too! I'm very good at ship names." He nodded a couple time at the boys who were just staring at him. "What? Do I have something in my teeth?" When no one said anything he twisted back to Liam. "Do I?"

The brunet shook his head with a breathy laugh. "No, your teeth are fine. You just shocked the two." He reassured while Niall nodded at the explanation and twisted back to Louis and Harry, they were still staring. Liam could tell there were wheels turning in their heads as the processed what Niall had said. 

Very slowly Louis moved to look at Harry. "You like me?" He asked, pronouncing each word carefully like he still couldn't believe what Niall had said. Harry made eye contact and nodded. Louis nodded back. "So, you want to go on a date sometime?" He asked and Harry nodded more at that question. The two began exchanging numbers. 

Niall turned to Liam. "Our work here is done. Now let's do what I had actually came here to do." He said and hopped off Liam, who as soon as he realized what Niall was going to do released his hold, once again. Niall looked at Liam to get up so he did. Then Niall interlocked their hands. "C'mon! Let's go get some lunch." 

The blond boy started walking out the door, but Liam pulled him back. Niall looked back in confusion. The writer motioned to where had been seated before Niall had entered. There sat his backpack which had his laptop in it. Niall nodded and moved to grab the backpack for Liam and slung it over his shoulder. "Okay, c'mon Mr. Writer. It's lunch time!" 

***

Niall took Liam to a small cafe a couple minutes away. The blond carefully placed the backpack next to Liam's seat. He sat down across from Liam. "You should get the pizza here. It's amazing. I think it has the best pizza 'round here. I would come here every Monday after Uni and get a pizza. I would just eat an entire one by myself and do schoolwork. It was actually my favorite time to do school work." Liam nodded along.

He looked around the small cafe. It was warmly lit and had a couple tables scattered about along with booths by the wall. The place looked very nice. If the food was as good as Niall was saying, not that he doubted Niall, then he might come there more often.

Soon a waitress came up. She had a bright smile on her face and Liam could instantly tell it wasn't fake. This was actually giving the cafe a plus for him. "Hello! I'm Miley and I'm your server for today. What can I get for you two?" 

Niall looked to Liam, but the brunet boy shrugged. Miley looked between the two of them so Liam pointed to Niall. He wasn't sure what to get so he would just go with Niall's recommendation. 

Somehow Niall understood and order for the both of them. He got two pizzas plus tea. The tea came a couple minutes later. Niall now playing with the wrapping the straw came with spoke. "So Mr. Writer, tell me stuff about you. So far I know you're a writer and that your favorite animal is a dog...I looked you up on Google." 

The brunet thought for a couple moments before replying. He wasn't sure exactly how much Niall wanted to know about him so he went with basic stuff. "My middle name is James, like yours-you told me while you were drunk, I have two sisters and my mum and dad who still live in Wolverhampton and I used to live in Wolverhampton before I moved here and I'm twenty." Niall made no motion of hearing Liam as he was still playing with the wrapper, but Liam wasn't too concerned as the boy had looked up momentarily to question he Liam knew his middle name.

"Well I will return information! I have a brother and my mom and dad live in Mullingar, Ireland where I was born and raised. Oh, and I'm nineteen. Also I'm going to Uni for music. I want to be a musician someday, maybe singing or behind the scenes work." Niall spoke as he finally looked up at Liam when the paper was all soggy with tea and in little pieces. "Hey, do you have any more fungi jokes?" He asked out of blue which took Liam back a moment.

The brunet had to think for a couple seconds before he actually remembered one. "What did the mushroom say when no one would play with him?" He paused as the pizza arrived, and then finished the joke. "What's the matter? I'm a fungi." Niall looked like he would've spitted out his food if he had any in his mouth. 

"That was the best joke I've heard. You, Mr. Writer, are a keeper. I'm going to keep you and name you squishy and you will be my squishy." The blond leaned over and pinched Liam's cheeks.

The writer scrunched up his nose at Niall. "I'm not squishy. I'm manly as hell." Liam replied only his reply sent Niall into a fit of laughter and wow that boy's laugh could cure cancer.   
The writer made sure he didn't accidentally mumble anything of what he was thinking, but by the way Niall was laughing he didn't think the blond would even hear him. 

"Liam, you are amazing." Niall breathed out as he whipped a tear from his eye, the tear was from laughing so hard. "We should hang out more often. Oh hey! There's a carnival next Friday. Wanna go? I can introduce you to Luke and Ashton as you've already met Malum." The blond looked at Liam with a small pleading look in his eye. 

The writer couldn't refuse so he said yes. The blond cheered and hopped out of the table to hug Liam. "Yay, now I'm not gonna be a fifth wheel to Malum and Lashton!" Niall pulled back from the hug, he sat down to finish eating his pizza. The blond seemed to be in deep thought so Liam stayed quiet and ate his own pizza. 

It wasn't long before Niall went back to normal and started chatting up a storm. Liam simply listened while he did add input into some topics, he was happy to just listen.   
They ended up staying until the cafe closed where the two parted ways as they had both walked to the coffee shop and they lived in opposite directions of the other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yooooooo i'm back with an update and it didn't take too long! question tho to anyone who's reading. What do you all want to happen in the story? Cause I wanna know (and maybe I'll add it in)


	8. pre carnival

From, Blond Weirdo: LIAAMMMMMMMM

Blond Weirdo: TODAY

Blond Weirdo: IS THE DAY

Blond Weirdo: CARNIVALLLLLLLLL

Blond Weirdo: OH YOU'LL GET TO MEET LUKE AND ASHTON

Blond Weirdo: AND MICHAEL AND CALUM FOR MORE THAN A LITTLE BIT!

Blond Weirdo: I'M EXCITED

Blond Weirdo: ARE YOU EXCITED

Blond Weirdo: LIAAAAAMMMMMMMM

Blond Weirdo: ANSWER

Blond Weirdo: OR I WILL COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND KIDNAP YOU

Blond Weirdo: CAUSE CARNIVAL DAY!

Blond Weirdo: OKAY I'M COMING OVER

Blond Weirdo: BE PREPARED!

That is what Liam was woken up to. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and checked the texts, full out smiling when he finished. He checked at the time the last message was sent and it was fifteen minutes ago. He wasn't sure how soon Niall would be there so he grabbed the small brown leather book from his bedside table and wrote a couple small stories. All pretty much revolved about the blonde boy, but they were nice.

He didn't get out of bed until the doorbell rang. When he did get up he put his notebook in his pocket and remembered that he only had sweatpants on. He quickly looked around for a shirt, before remembering he'd put them in the wash the night before. So he was just going to have to answer the book half naked. He thought to himself that this it could be worse. He could be fully naked.

Liam finally went to the door and opened it revealing a blond boy, who gave him a bright smile. The writer returned the smile. "Nice abs. I'd lick 'em." Niall commented and passed by Liam into the flat. The writer turned around and gapped at Niall and his passive comment. "What? I was just saying I would. If you aren't gay that's fine, but if you have a problem against gays that's not fine, I myself am quite happily gay. Also you'll be surrounded by gays." Niall rambled and then paused. "Wait, what am I'm saying? Why would you have a problem against gays? You helped me get Malum together, who by the way are already doing the do, something that I didn't ever want to see. Anyway, it’s carnival day! Are you excited?" Niall went from grossed out to an excited puppy in a split second.

The writer nodded, he didn’t quite believe his luck that the boy he was crushing on was gay. "Yeah, I am. I can tell you're very excited." Niall's smile brightened.

"Why wouldn't I be excited? I get to hang out with my four best friends and Harry and Louis and you too! It's going to be amazing. I want to get one of giant stuffed toys too. Have you ever gotten one?" Liam shook his head and Niall continued. "My brother got one for his girlfriend-I mean soon to be wife once. Come to think of it I don't know when my brother's wedding is. He hasn't told me yet." The blond rambled on as he flopped onto Liam's sofa.

"There's still four hours until the carnival starts and I'm bored!" He complained to Liam. The writer shrugged. He didn't know how to cure Niall's boredom really. "Do you have any more of your story I can read?" Liam shook his head, making Niall shoot up so he was sitting on the sofa. "What why?"

"My laptop got a virus in it so Zayn, from the coffee shop is fixing it for me. He said I'll get it back tomorrow." Liam explained as he sat down next to Niall. The blond fell back down and rested his head on Liam's lap. "So I was going to do cleaning today, but it can always do it tomorrow." Niall's eyes brightened.

"I could help!" What? Liam thought, only he didn't just think, he said out loud. "I said I could help. You're cleaning will go much faster if I help." The blond nodded. "Although first I think we should watch a movie 'cause I don't wanna get up. You're very comfy." Niall squirmed just a little bit and let out a content sigh as to prove his point. Liam smiled at the blond boy.

***

Niall was quite content on Liam's lap. He was quite content to just be with Liam. He really liked the writer and knew he was defently crushing on Liam. He just didn't think the writer felt the same so he told himself he'd be perfectly content with friends. Though he may rig a game of truth or dare sometime so he could kiss Liam just to know how it felt, but that was for a later date.  
The blond turned around so he was looking up at Liam instead of at the movie. "Hey Lili," Liam looked down and Niall smiled. "Congrats on your face!"

"Wh-what?" Liam stuttered and it was completely adorable to Niall. Liam was completely adorable to Niall. With his getting pretty long brown hair and really cute puppy brown eyes, the writer was just completely adorable to Niall. The blond was going to make sure he knew how adorable he was too.

"I said congrats if your face. You have a cute face. Actually it's like a mix of cute and hot, 'cause Ashton has a cute face, but it's not hot. Then Zayn from the coffee shop as a hot face, but it's not cute. You're just kind of both. Also you remind me of a puppy. I think it's your eyes, their brown like a puppy’s. I think if you were a puppy you'd be a golden retriever." Niall nodded as best he could, the blond felt himself melting a bit at the blush on Liam's cheeks.

"Hey Lili, how old are you?" Niall knew it was a random question, but he'd realized that he'd didn't know at all. The writer seemed like he'd be older than Niall, but then most people seemed like they could be older than Niall because he knew he was a bit immature.

"I’m twenty one, why?" Niall giggled at Liam's answer making the writer look more confused than he already did by the random question and all the compliments.

"I'm nineteen. Did ya know that? You're two years older than me," As he suddenly got an idea to mess with Liam a bit, Niall continued on. "I'm still legal ya know. You could kiss me." The writer blushed even more and Niall suddenly started laughing. He held his sides as he rolled so his face was pressed into Liam's leg.

He was dangerously close to falling off the sofa until he felt strong arms pull him back a bit. The action made butterflies in Niall's stomach. "You're a strange one Niall." The blond nodded and cuddled into Liam. He felt sleepy again from all the laughing.

"Yeah, but I could be your strange one." He murmured as he drifted back into sleep. Really for all the sleep he was just going to blame it on waking up at six am 'cause his alarm for classes went offeven though he's no longer in. He just forgot to turn it off.

***

Being woken up by gentle playing of hair and whispers was something he could really get used to. Niall was slowly being woken up from sleep when he felt his hair being played with. Then there were whispers and he was trying to hear which brought him from sleep even more.

"Ni, wake up babe. It's time to go the carnival." The babe is what got him awake. It came out of Liam's mouth and he loved it. He wouldn't complain if Liam kept calling him babe and kissing him and taking him out for dates and doing cute couple things. "Ni, are you awake?"

Niall made incoherent mumbles in responses. "C'mon ba- it's time to go." Niall frowned at Liam freezing in the middle of calling him babe. He wanted the writer to call him that again. The blond boy slowly got up into a sitting position. He ran a hand through his blond hair, making it more messed up than it was.

"You should do that more." His Irish accent coming out thicker from the sleep. "Call me babe. Yeah, you should do that. It's nice." The writer chuckled as Niall got up to find his shoes. Somewhere in his mind he understood carnival time and to get ready. His mind was just on the 'babe thing'. It sound amazing coming from Liam.

Niall finally got his shoes on. He rubbed his eyes and looked over to find Liam already ready. The writer nodded and held his hand out for Niall to take. "C'mon _babe_. Let's go to this carnival."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haaaaiiii. kay this chapter is shorter than the others and i'm sorry, but i dunno i was going to make it a big one, but then i haven't updated in a while so i leave you with this while i work. also my tumblr is ghostytommo is you wanna yell at me to update (no seriously if you wanna come yell at me to update then do it) oh and i feel like i should point this out that this chapter isn't edited, really none of my chapters are edited.


	9. Chapter 9

Niall loved the carnival day he had with Liam. Everything was great about that day. From the beginning to the end. He really wanted to go back to that day, but instead it was a three days later and he was on a plane going back to Ireland for his brother's wedding.  
The blond remembered how at the beginning of the trip he had confused Liam with his random conversation starter on Malum.

"You know, Malum is the greatest ship since peanut butter and jelly. They're just great together, and we are responsible for them actually getting together. Though now they're a lovey-dovey couple and I think Luke and Ashton are going that way too, but they don't need my help. Which I guess makes me a bit of the fifth wheel, but I got you to help with that. We can be fifth and sixth wheels together!" Niall rambled, he didn't know how the writer just listened to his ramblings. He knew most people tuned him out, or told him to shut up, but Liam never seemed to do that.

Sometimes he thought that could be what made them go well together. Just because they were opposites. Liam with his quiet, thoughtful ways and Niall with his energetic, talkative ways just made them go well together. He knew for sure he liked the writer amd it was much more than a friend kind. 

He remembered how when Liam chuckled in response to Niall's rambling was a chuckle that just made him look adorable to Niall and the blond just wanted to squeeze Liam's cheeks. He also wanted to kiss him, but he tried not to think too much about that. He knew his body had a way of acting on it's own that Niall got himself into awkward situations.

In thinking that, his mouth followed suit of what he was thinking and started rambling on it's own. "Hey, Liam. You know I actually met Michael because I was staring at his hair, which was bright pink at the time, and I just walked up and touched his hair. He was pretty shocked when I did it and then somehow we became friends. It was a strange day. I also met Calum that day." The blond sighed dreamily. "From day one I was shipping Malum."

Liam hadn't said anything as he had to walk up to buy the tickets to get in the carnival, but Niall quickly cut in. "Oh no! Mr. Writer you are not paying. I invited you to come so I'm paying." 

A blush spread across Liam's features making Niall want to kiss him. "I can pay for it. I don't mind." Niall shook his head as he handed the cashier the money.

"No, Li Li. No. Just because you are a famous writer doesn't mean you can't let me pay for your ticket. Now shut up, I've already payed." He spoke quickly to distracted Liam as the cashier handed the change back. 

The blond took hold of Liam's wrist and lead him through the carnival. Niall stopped to stare at some of the rides, but he was heading for the giant ferris wheel. They were one of the first people in line and were on pretty quickly. 

Niall looked over to Liam who seemed to be deep in thought. So in his own sort of boredom since the ride hadn't started yet Niall hummed a song. The song seemed to catch Liam's attention. "Are you humming Taylor Swift?" 

With a shrug the blond responded "Yeah. What? Taylor Swift is pretty good. I could hum Teenage Dirtbag!"

Liam chuckled and motioned for him to go on, just instead of humming Niall decided to actually sing it. Niall slung and arm around Liam's shoulders and sung loudly. At one point he motioned for Liam to sing and he did. 

"Come with me Niall don't say maybe. I'm just a teenage dirtbag like you." Niall laughed at Liam's lyric change, but he was also shocked by how good the writer's voice sounded.

He stared at Liam who had a faint blush spreading. "You're a great singer. You know that?" Liam blushed even more and it was very visible. "I demand you sing for me more. Oh! Have you ever tried songwriting? 'Cause you are a writer. Maybe you could be a songwriter too." The writer shook his head. 

"Not really, no." Liam admitted right as the ferris wheel started up. Niall squealed a little bit as the ride started, but turned his attention back to Liam. 

"You should try it! I could even help. Or I could try to help. Songwriting, Mr Writer. You need to try it." The blond grinned at the writer. 

They sat in mostly silence as Liam thought about Niall said. The most sound coming from Niall as he would oo and ahh at the sights. 

-

After the ferris wheel Niall remembered that they saw Harry and Louis. Louis was working one of the games that Niall wanted to play. "Hey! Lou!" Niall yelled from a bit aways, attracting Louis attention. The boy smiled and waved them over.

"Hello boys! Want to play a game?" Before Niall to reply he was almost tackled to the ground by the human baby giraffe known as Harry Styles. The blond stumbled back.

He pulled back from the hug and then pulled Liam into one which the writer wasn't expecting at all and almost fell but Harry kept the writer on his feet. 

Niall noticed Louis giving Harry a fond smile. Now that Harry had pulled back from his Liam hug, the blond saw the both and Harry were wearing the same uniform. "Do you both work here?" 

Harry looked to Niall and shook his head. "No, Lou works here. I'm just the help and Loubear had a spare shirt that was too big for him, but fitted me so where matching! Matching boyfriends."

Giggling Harry went around back to Louis and hugged the boy from behind. "He's had a lot of cotton candy." Niall's face brightened at that. 

"There's cotton candy? Where?" Niall and Harry started talking about the best places to get cotton candy. Louis sent a sympitalic look to Liam.

He reached over and placed a hand on the writer's shoulder. "I'm sorry, your day is about to get crazy. If Niall is anything like Harry, he's gonna be more hyper than a puppy on sugar." 

Liam shrugged. He didn't mind Niall hyperness at all. If he did he figured he would've left by now. He was about to say something when Harry came over. Poking Louis in the side making the slightly shorter boy yelp.

"Hey! What the f-" Harry quickly placed a hand over Louis mouth. 

Half yelling, half speaking the curly haired boy fixed Louis with a glare. "Bad cupcake, bad. Don't swear." Harry squealed and quickly removed his hand whipping it on Louis' shirt. With the look he got from Louis he shrugged. "Your sliva, your shirt." 

"Frick you, you jellybean." Louis said with no venom and Niall laughed at the word 'frick'. The three boys stared at him as the blond boy tried to regain composer. 

He shrugged his shoulders and looked back. "What? Frick is a funny word. Like frick-frack." 

"Please no. Harry uses that saying way too much." Harry frowned at Louis. Making the boy quickly amend his mistake. "I mean it's okay coming from him, I just don't like it in general." Harry's curls bounced around his head as he nodded with smile on his face again.

The two hung out and chatted with Louis and Harry for a bit, until Niall's phone sound with a text and Niall quickly said bye to Louis and Harry. The blond dragged Liam through the carnival to a snow cone stand where Liam had recognized Calum and Michael. 

Calum had blond streaks in his hair and Michael had bright red hair. Niall raced over to them, still dragging Liam along. "Michael! Calum! How's it going? Where's Luke and Ashton? They need to meet Liam." 

As soon as he finished speaking a new voice entered which Niall knew as Luke. "We're right behind you." Niall released his hold on Liam and hugged Luke. 

"So have you and Ashton finally gotten together?" Niall asked making the boy blush and shake his head. "Oh, you need to get on that! Also meet Liam." Niall gestured to Liam. "Luke, this is Liam. Liam, this is Luke." The boy waved at Liam and Liam waved back. 

"Um, Ashton should be here soon. So what's been going with you lately?" Luke asked to no one directly, but Niall answered while Michael went to hug Calum from behind and rest his head on the dark haired boy's shoulder. 

Pretty soon Ashton came along. Then Niall being Niall said loudly. "Hey Luke! That could you and Ashton, but you playin'." Ashton being the great friend he is stepped in and saved Luke.

"It could also be you and Liam, but you playin' too." Ashton sudden appearance started Luke.

Calum also added in his own comment. "It's me and Michael. Neither of us are playin'" Niall turned to the boy and grinned. He went off about how cute the two of are making everyone smile the at blond boy's cuteness. 

-

Niall remember how the rest of the day went perfect. He had a ton of cotton candy and like the warning Liam had received he was more hyper than a puppy on sugar. He didn't want that day to end, but it had to. 

The blond had hung out with Liam on the days he had left before he had to leave for his brothers wedding. Liam had come over and helped packed like the wonderful person he was. Which as always made Niall just want to squeeze his cheeks and kiss him.

He thought he would actually miss Liam the most on this trip. Sure, he was excited for his brother's wedding, but he liked hanging out with Liam a lot. 

The writer had even come to the airport to see Niall off. Niall had promised Liam that he would text while he was gone and Liam promised to have more of the book written so Niall would know who the villain was. 

So Niall figured he'd make through his week of not seeing Liam because of all of that. He slowly fell asleep on the plane as he had an hour left on his trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter just didn't want to work with me sooooooo this is what I present to you cause it's the first one i haven't hated in my many rewritings of this chapter. it shorter than i wanted it to be, but meh. i feel like if i try to fix it i'll just end up rewriting the whole thing again. sooo yup, enjoy and idk when the next chapter will be up


	10. Chapter 10

The one thing Niall hated about his brother's wedding was everyone asked him if he was dating anyone. Every single time he avoided the topic because he wished he was dating someone and he wished that someone was Liam. 

He had been in Ireland two days before he got a text from Liam. The text had scared him as he was just about to text the writer. 

Mr. Writer: Quick, say a name!

Blond Weirdo: casper??????

Mr. Writer: Okay, thanks! :)

Blond Weirdo: WOAH LI LI NO WAIT

Blond Weirdo: WHY U NEED NAME?

Mr. Writer: Because I didn't know what to name the villain and you're full of good ideas. 

Blond Weirdo: so the villain is now named casper?

Mr. Writer: Yep. 

As Niall went to text he reply his mom came in the living room where Niall was lounging on the sofa, so Niall locked his phone and turned to his mom.

"Niall how was uni?" His mom asked and Niall calmed down just a bit. At least the question wasn't going to come straight away. He told his mom about uni and meeting Liam, Harry, and Louis. He really just told her what had happened in his life since he saw her.  
His mom had a soft smile and asked gently. "Do you like Liam?" The blond sputtered at the question. It was random and not what he was expecting. Niall nodded in the end with a blush spread across his face.

He looked to her and suddenly wondered how she knew. So he asked, "How did you know?" 

With the same soft smile his mom replied, "You have the sound of someone in love when you talk about Liam." Just his mom confirming what he, had pretty much known since the carnival trip and a bit before it was that he really did love Liam. 

With a knowing smile, Niall's mum let herself out and immediately Niall called Louis. The boy had a plan. A plan he would put into action the day after he gets back. It could go horribly wrong or wonderfully right, but Niall was willing to take the chance. Besides, he didn't think Liam was one to just stop being friends with someone just because the person really wanted to kiss his face every time they were around him.

Until then Louis was in charge of getting everything set up while he hung out with family and was just excited for his brother's wedding. 

Niall actually was stressing out about the wedding a bit. He was his brother's best man and he freaking out. He had everything under control earlier, with a lot of help. But now that the wedding was tomorrow he didn't know what to do. His mind just went blank on everything. Niall only had twenty-four hours to sort himself out. 

Spending most of his time freaking out by himself, Niall finally decided to call Liam, instead of texting as they had been doing for the past couple days. He was having a crisis so he didn't think about it being the middle of the night and that Liam would be sleeping. So when Liam answered with his voice slightly raspy and fill with sleep Niall had to take a step back. Because Liam just sounded great. 

"Hello?" Liam over the phone sounded more awake and Niall quickly snapped himself from his thoughts. He needed Liam's help. He was having a crisis. 

Niall ran a hand through his dyed blond hair that had his brown roots showing. "Liam, I'm having a crisis." He didn't even give Liam enough time to reply before he was explaining what his crisis was. "I'm the best man for the wedding and I don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore. What if I mess everything up or-" Liam quickly cut him off before the blond could work himself up even more.

"Calm down. You'll do great. I know you'll do great. You aren't going to mess anything up and everything will go fine. Okay? I believe in you. Your family believes in you. Your brother believes in you, he wouldn't have picked you if he didn't think you could do it. You'll do great and everything will be fine." Liam said softly in order to calm Niall down and it was working.

Niall was still nervous, but it wasn't as bad. Liam had stayed up the next three hours to go over everything with Niall over the phone on what to do, how to act, and just everything Niall had known he was supposed to do, but it was helpful to go over it so he wouldn't blank again. 

After thanking the writer over and over until Liam told Niall to get some sleep, the blond did sleep. He felt ready for the wedding. He knew exactly what to do, it was all there in his head, along with Liam's pep talk so Niall was ready as he figured he'd ever be.

***

The wedding went amazing. Nothing went wrong during it and at reception nothing seemed to be going wrong. The only thing that kept happening was a girl whom Niall hadn't met until that night, who kept trying to get with him. Niall had tried many ways to get the girl to back off, but nothing was working.

He was getting desperate, so when had seen the girl coming over to him again, he quickly rung his last contact, being Liam. The writer picked up instantly with a happy "Hi, Niall!"

"Hey Li! How's it going back there?" Niall casted a side glance at the girl coming closer. Not seeming to care that Niall was on the phone. He listened to Liam response and actually laughed when Liam told him a story of him walking in on Louis and Harry at the coffee shop. "Um, hold on a moment." Liam hummed in agreement and Niall looked to the girl in front of him now.

She was trying to be seductive, but it just wasn't working on Niall. So he did the next best thing he could think of. "I'm on the phone with my boyfriend." The girl took a step back at that and glared at the phone. As if sensing his lie she asked for the phone, but just took it instead. 

The girl took no time in asking if Liam, on the line, truly was Niall's boyfriend. It was a couple moments until he got his phone back and the girl shrugged and left. Niall saw her heading to some other guy and let out a small sigh of relief. "Okay, I'm back." He said into the phone and was met with a small chuckle. 

"So we're dating now?" Liam asked and Niall could just hear the small smile in Liam's tone. 

So Niall just went along with it, he didn't have anything to do in that moment. Everything was going fine at the reception. "Yes, did you not get the memo?" Niall joked.

"No, but I'm sure that girl did. I'm guessing she had been harassing you the whole night?" Niall nodded, but then realized Liam couldn't see him, but before he replied, Liam continued talking. "I told her that we've been dating for a couple weeks now. Which is honestly so weird that we've only known each other for a couple weeks, it feels so much longer." 

Niall had to admit Liam had a point. It did feel like he knew Liam for much longer than a couple weeks. It was also strange to him that it only took a couple weeks for the blond to completely fall for the writer. “That is pretty weird. Also thanks for coming to my rescue.”  
“It’s not a problem. Hey, I’m almost finished with the ending of this book!” Liam sounded excited and Niall felt excited.

He squealed a little bit, which his mum caught and when she saw him on the phone sent a smile Niall’s way. Making Niall blush at his mum knowing who he was talking to, but to Liam he asked, “How much is almost?”

“Um, three chapters maybe? So hopefully all questions about the book will be answered when you read it and if not I’ll add in the answers to your questions somehow. You’ll be like my beta reader.” Niall grinned and almost squealed again, but covered his mouth. 

As a person came up to him saying that his help was needed on something, Niall quickly nodded. “Li, I gotta go, best man duty calls. But I’m excited for this, super excited. I’ll see you in three days, yeah?” 

“Yeah. Go fulfill your best man duties” 

“Okay! See ya then!” Niall hung up the phone and went in the direction that he was needed. With just a tiniest skip in his step after talking to Liam, Niall knew he was completely smitten with Liam and he was okay with that.

*** 

The rest of the night went wonderfully and time flew by until Niall was back on a plane. He only had a couple hours until he'd see Liam and hopefully Louis and Harry didn’t get sidetracked with each other and remembered the plan. 

Sleeping on a plane always made Niall a bit sore and sleepy. It was never completely restful sleeping on a plane and Niall knew that, it just the sleep pasted the time quicker. When he got past security and all that he saw a head of curls waiting for him.

Harry even had a sign that said “Niall” it was in green letters with a four leaf clover under it, and as soon as Harry saw Niall he let the sign drop to his side. Then Niall was wrapped up in a hug and he hugged back. 

“Hey Niall! So Louis is currently working on getting Liam out of his house and too the park. We decided a park was a wonderful place to have a date. Oh! Also Louis said to give this to you.” Harry handed Niall a ring-pop making Niall look at him in confusion. “So you can propose the date! It’ll be all romantic, minus it being a ring-pop, but Lou and I thought it would be nice.” Niall nodded. He felt nerves building up a bit, but pushed them downing. Knowing it was Liam and if he knew Liam, which he thought he did, Liam would just stop being friends with him because of that.

Niall didn't even consider the fact that Liam didn’t object to being his fake boyfriend, or had called him babe before the carnival. He just knew Liam and figured he really had nothing to lose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i bet none of you saw an update coming so soon! ~~now watch it's gonna take me like two weeks to write the next chapter.~~ also this fic might possibly be coming to an ending soon. like we're reaching the end of what i had planned so unless i think of anything else there'll probably be like two chapters after this.


	11. Chapter 11

Liam was confused, like seriously confused. He had basically been kidnapped by Louis. Louis wouldn't even say why or where he was taking him. So Liam just sat in the back of Louis car as he watched the scenery go by as Louis had confiscated his phone so he couldn't text anyone. 

There were a couple tries to get Louis to tell him anything, but nope. The boy was being silent and not giving out any information. So where ever Liam was going, he had no clue what to expect. 

Finally Louis had stopped driving and Liam looked around to find themselves in a park. Louis motioned for him to get out and he did with Louis following after him. "I'm not going to murder you. If that went through your mind at any point." Liam shook his head, because that thought hadn't even crossed his mind. His only thought was really 'oh, Louis is kidnapping me.' Murder never entered into it. 

"So why are we here?" Liam asked, looking around for any sort of clue as to why. However Louis shook his head.

"I'm not telling you. The jelly bean and I were just the helpers." Louis commented and then was almost tackled to the ground by none other than Harry Styles yelling 'cupcake!'

Harry was grinning as he looked at Liam. "I'm the jelly bean!" Liam figured that Harry was the jelly bean and that Louis was the cupcake. Harry had the energy of a jelly bean; the boy was more like a huge child. 

Liam was still confused as to why he was there. Harry noticed his confusion and frowned as he looked around. The human jelly bean untangled himself from Louis and walked to the car next to Louis' car. Liam faintly heard a 'c'mon' but he didn't know why. 

It made a bit more sense when Harry came back dragging a nervous Niall with him. Taking was Louis had said earlier about being a helper, Niall had arranged all this and was now nervous. Harry was complaining to Niall about how he had been fine at the airport and now he got nervous. 

Louis left Liam alone with an order to stay like he would give to a puppy, which Liam took some offence to. He wasn't a puppy, but he stayed anyway. He wanted answers and figured Niall would be the best person to get answers from. Louis seemed to be giving Niall instructions and then pushed him toward Liam. 

"We'll be back in three hours. Have fun; don't do anything I wouldn't do." Louis cheered and walked off to his car with Harry following close behind talking animatedly about something that a Harry Styles would talk about.

Niall seemed to be taking a couple deep breaths before grinning at Liam. "So, fancy seeing you here. Um, let's go a, uh, walk. Liam could still tell Niall was nervous, but as the blond offered an arm for them to interlock, he accepted and walked with Niall.

"So where are we going?" He asked and Niall shrugged. 

"No clue where. Lou said to walk straight for ten minutes and we'd get there or wander around for half an hour and we'd get there." Judging by where Niall was going, he was taking the long way. Not that Liam minded, he had three hours to spend with Niall since both their rides were gone. 

They walked in silence for a couple minutes, which Liam thought was uncharacteristic for Niall since he normally fills silence with talking. It wasn't even an uncomfortable silence, but it wasn't exactly comfortable. It was just silence. So Liam decided, like he hadn't heard about it before, to ask about the wedding. 

That quickly got rid of the silence for the half hour as Niall rambled on the wedding and everything that had happened, and Liam felt like he had actually been there with all Niall was talking about. He really had missed the blond haired boy with the week he was gone. Niall wasn't even fully blond anymore. He had his brown roots showing, but that still looked good. He thought Niall looked good all the time. 

At the ends of Niall's rambling they came across a nice little clearing with a picnic set up and some fairy lights. It looked amazing and Liam looked to Niall who was blushing. 

"So, I'm abandoning Harry's idea 'cause that's even more nerve wracking then just asking, but um, would you like to go on a date? Like now?" Niall's blue eyes were looking anywhere besides Liam's face. To which Liam smiled and gently said yes. Knowing Niall wouldn't hear it and be forced to look at him. When Niall did, Liam said yes louder causing Niall's face to break out in a smile.

"What was Harry's idea?" Liam asked suddenly. He had a feeling the curly haired boy had some ridiculous idea and judging by Niall's reaction he was right. 

Liam just didn't expect Niall to get down on one knee and pull out a ring pop package from his pocket. "In the mind of Harry Styles, this is a date proposal. Liam James Payne, even though you already said yes and I don't know why I'm doing this, will you go on a date with me right now?" 

Tearing the package apart to reveal a blue and red ring pop, Niall offered it to Liam with a giggle. All the nerves and awkwardness was gone and it was just Niall and Liam. 

"Yes, Niall James Horan. I will go on a date with you." Niall placed the ring on Liam's hand and then got up brushing dirt off his jeans. "I think you're right. That would've been more nerve wracking." 

Niall blushed a little bit and Liam just found it cute. "I was going to do that until the last minute." With a chuckle from Liam, Niall got pulled into a hug. Both boys were happy with the hug until Niall's stomach growled. 

"I did just get off a plane an hour ago." Niall defended, putting his hands on his tummy. 

Liam chuckled and pointed to the picnic. "We have a picnic set up." Niall nodded and sat down on the blanket then he patted the space next to him. 

A couple sandwiches later and a whole lot of talking, laughter, some tears from so much laughing, Niall was resting his head on Liam's lap, with Liam brushing his hair. The boy sighed contently. "You know Mr Writer. I really like you. I know we haven't even known each other a month, but it doesn't feel like that. It feels like I've known you for so long." Niall paused for a second, opening his eyes to actually look at Liam. "I'm in deep. Okay. I would just shrug it off as a silly crush, but I'm in deep and there's no way I could ever convince myself of that. So I wanna give you and me a try as in a us sort of thing."

Liam opened his mouth to reply, but Niall awkwardly covered it with his hand. "I'm not finished yet. Now, I'm not saying boyfriends. That might be too soon considering this is our first official date, but maybe we could go on another and maybe one of that that." Niall had this hopeful look in his eye and Liam couldn't say no. He didn't even want to say no.

Gently taking Niall's hand from his mouth and holding it, Liam smiled. "I would love too."

The two didn't stay in their moment for long as commotion from the trees broke it. Niall got up, leaning his weight on one arm to properly see what was going on. Soon Harry and Louis with Harry trying to hold Louis back emerged from the trees. "Let me go you jelly bean."

"No! Cupcake, they're having a moment. We shouldn't interrupt their moment." Harry argued and Niall cleared his throat causing both boys to look at him.

"You already did. I'm guessing it's been three hours." Liam spoke then Louis and Harry nodded. Niall giggled and got up onto his feet."

"Harry's my ride home. I'll text you later for our next date, ok?" Liam nodded, and Harry let go off Louis only to immediately start apologizing to Niall about the interruption. The blond laughed and slung his arm around Harry's shoulder. 

Louis turned to Liam and motioned for him to get up. "I think we're in charge of clean up." He commented and Liam shrugged, he didn't mind cleaning up at all. 

"So, tell me all about your date. Harry and I only got here at the very very end." Liam smiled and launched into what had happened and it made the cleaning up go by much quicker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idek there's that and the next chapter will probably be the last chapter. just sayin'


	12. Chapter 12

Niall and Liam had been dating for two months, Liam's newest book went into the bestselling list, and Niall still wasn't his boyfriend. Within all the dates, Liam never found the right moment to ask. He didn't plan on it being that day either, but that's how it ended up.

Liam was getting makeup done as he was about to do a live interview about his book, he was a bit nervous as he hadn't done many with only having two books out. Everyone was telling him not to freak out, which kind of freaked him out.

Finally Liam had gone on and the interview was going well, he might have been mentioning Niall too much, but he thought no one noticed. The interview was going smoothly, there were questions on two of the characters and their pet names making Liam shrug because he didn't have a good answer for those pet names they were just Louis and Harry or Will and Ed in the book.

The final question made Liam stammer. The interviewer leaned a bit closed and asked, "Who is Niall? You keep talking about him and he was in the dedication." Liam froze; and then words came tumbling out.

"He's my, uh, b-boyfriend and he's really nice and sweet and-" Liam stopped himself before he went off about Niall and everything he'd ever thought about the dyed blond boy. The interviewer chuckled and said it was cute before closing out the interview and Liam went backstage to get the makeup off.

After the interview and Liam got home, he was met with Niall sitting on the sofa watching tv. It was normal for Niall to be at his flat, he was going to invite Niall to just move in with the amount of time the boy spent there and it wouldn't be too hard to move Niall over. Half of the clothes Liam ended up washing when he did laundry was Niall's and he had a space in his closet for Niall's clothes in case the blond boy decided to stay the night, which he did a lot. It was like the blond was slowly moving in and that's was Liam thought he was doing. 

Liam moved to the kitchen and found a bowl of mac 'n' cheese already there for him. He grabbed it and grabbed a fork then went to sit next to Niall, who was eating his own bowl of mac 'n' cheese. "Hey, Ni." Liam started making the blond boy turn to look at him. "Do you just want to move in with me?" He asked before taking a bite of the mac 'n' cheese. 

Niall's entire face morphed into a smile and he nodded quickly. "I would love too...boyfriend." Liam almost choked on his food and looked at Niall. He had hoped Niall hadn't watched the interview, but seems he wasn't that lucky and while the blond wasn't reacting badly, Liam was still a bundle of nerves. "We're very romantic, you know. I was told we were boyfriends along with the rest of the world watching that interview." The blond shrugged and cuddled up next to Liam, and he let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. "I like it though. Now I can call you boyfriend and continue moving in." 

Liam wrapped an arm around Niall and messed with the blond that was still in Niall's hair. "I knew you were slowly moving in." Niall shrugged again and stole some of Liam's food as he had finished his. "Hey, that's my food." He protested, not that he did anything besides protest and would just let Niall continue eating.

"You're my boyfriend. I'm allowed to steal your food." Niall pointed out and stole some more. Liam didn't think Niall would stop calling him boyfriend for a long time and he didn't mind. He also didn't mind Niall stealing his food, but he would still protest anyway.

"You stole some of my food on our dates. Was it allowed then because we we're dating?" Liam asked and Niall shook his head. 

The blond looked up at Liam. "It was allowed then cause you're Liam. Liam's let Niall's steal their food. It's a fact of life. I should know I took science in uni." Liam shook his head, but didn't say anything. It was pretty much a fact in his life. 

"Oh, Harry called. Said you he did not approve of the way you asked to be my boyfriend, there were no ring pops or anything." Niall suddenly said making Liam chuckle. 

"I'll propose to you with a ring pop. It'll be an interesting story to tell people when they asked how I proposed." Liam mused, thinking about it. "Would you prefer a green ring pop or a red and blue one?" 

Niall blushed and cuddled even close to Liam, while planting a kiss on the writer's nose. "I'm Irish, green." Liam nodded and poked Niall's nose with the blond boy saying boop. So then Niall kissed Liam and Liam kissed back, only when the pulled away Liam poked Niall's lips with a boop making the blond boy giggled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this is short, but i like it sooooooooooo yeah. that was this fic it's over now and i'm kinda sad. i'll probably start on a new niam fic in a little bit cause i have a couple ideas and i just gotta choose which one i wanna write first. but yeah, thanks for reading, and my tumblr is ghostytommo if you wanna have chat, send a prompt, or yell at me to update fics. sam out now cause this note is getting long.


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